1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motor vehicles in general, and more particularly to a computer system for controlling the operation of a drive system of a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various constructions of control systems for motor vehicles. In most if not all of them, the software used for controlling the operation of the various functional units of the motor vehicle is structured in accordance with the functions in these functional units. However, there exists the possibility that various functions attempt to control the operation of one and the same adjusting element. Ability to exchange parts of the software is possible only at a huge expenditure. Modular configuration is not supported in such prior art control systems.
For improving this situation, there was proposed for instance in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,776 a control process or a control device by means of which control is exercised of the entire vehicle, at least with respect to the driving power, the motor power, and the braking process. The arrangement described in this document exhibits a hierarchical command structure for the control tasks, which considers the driver and/or his or her wishes (as expressed by activating various pedals, buttons etc.) to be at the highest level of the hierarchy. The control structure disclosed there includes coordinating elements that translate any command emanating from a higher hierarchic level into commands for the elements of a subordinate hierarchic level. The contents of the commands that are transmitted from above to below in the hierarchic structure constitute physical values that determine the interfaces between the individual hierarchic levels. Herein, the above-mentioned interfaces are configured to take into account the physical characteristics of the vehicle motion. This publication does not even allude to a possibility that would go beyond the disclosed concepts in considering, for instance, the auxiliary apparatus and/or devices (such as air conditioning unit, seNo pump or the like) or the on-board electrical network in the overall framework of a motor vehicle operation control. Yet, in view of the ever-increasing tendency in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry to interconnect previously stand-alone systems in vehicle one-board networks, the exclusive consideration of the drive and brake is no longer sufficient. Rather, it is becoming necessary to embed the drive control into the control structure for the entire motor vehicle by means of which also the systems that lie outside the drive system and its communications relationships could be coupled and coordinated with the drive control system, of which there is not even a suggestion in this document.
Moreover, the not pre-published German patent application 197 09 317.5 filed on Mar. 3, 1997 discloses the principle of another hierarchic basic structure of an overall vehicle operation control or management system. In this case, a motor vehicle coordinator element is a command issuer for the components drive (as a source of mechanical power, vehicular motion, vehicle body and interior, and on-board electrical network (as a source of electrical power). The communication between these individual components of this structure occurs exclusively in a mediate fashion via components that are superior to these components by being at hierarchic level(s) higher than these components, and even in these associated superior components in accordance with rigidly predetermined communication relationships. These communications relationships are an order or command that is issued generally by a component at a higher level of the hierarchy to a component at a lower hierarchic level and must be obeyed or followed by this latter component, a request that can be issued by a component even at a lower hierarchic level to a component at a higher hierarchic level and should be acted upon or fulfilled by such a latter component, and an inquiry to which a response is expected from the component that had been questioned. The control of the operation of the motor vehicle is accomplished within the framework of the above-described relationships between the components. For the control of the operation of the motor vehicle, there are transmitted rigidly predetermined physical values that constitute defined interfaces between the individual components. Detailed implementation of the components drive train and motor with respect to the gasoline or Diesel fuel management while taking into consideration of the relevant communication relationships in the overall motor vehicle system is not revealed in this disclosure.
From the also not pre-published German patent application 197 26 214.7, filed on Jun. 20, 1997, there is known the principle of a common control of a servo coupling interposed in the drive train and of a motor that is also arranged in the drive train with a gas pedal the position of which is being captured. On encountering a predetermined operational mode, the servo coupling and the vehicle motor are controlled in such a manner that the captured position of the gas pedal determines the acceleration and/or the speed of the vehicle. Integration of the control arrangement into the overall control system of a motor vehicle and the communications relationships that would have to exist under such circumstances are not disclosed in this document either.